Police have launched an operation against dacoits in the Kacha area of Sadiqabad district after about a dozen members of a gang killed nine people in indiscriminate firing at Chowk Mahi.
Elite Force personnel and armoured vehicles are also taking part in the action against suspected hideouts of criminals in the Kacha area along Indus river.
In Sadiqabad, funeral prayers were offered for the nine people killed by the Janu Undhar gang allegedly for resisting extortion. The deceased included Haji Ghulam Nabi, Zaheer Abbas, Pir Bakhsh, Allah Dad alias Dudha, Nazir Ahmad Farooq, Sharif, Munawar and Abdul Razzaq.
The bodies were handed over to the police for autopsy by the heirs after negotiations on Sunday night and were returned for burial after the postmortem.
A large number of local people attended the funeral, including Member of National Assembly Makhdoom Murtaza Mehmood. Strict security arrangements were made by the police on the occasion. Later, the victims were buried amid an atmosphere of mourning.
According to officials, Bahawalpur Regional Police Officer Muhammad Zubair Dareshak is supervising the operation against the gang and Additional Inspector General of South Punjab Captain (retd) Zafar Iqbal has set up a camp in the area to expedite the action.
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The Additional IG also visited the Punjab-Sindh border check post in Sadiqabad and met the families of the victims. He inspected the site of the attack and obtained information from people of the area about the incident.
He said a special operation had been launched in the Kacha area to eliminate the dens of the dacoits. The official said help of intelligence agencies had also been sought in this regard.
Awan said during his visit to Mahi Chowk that police would guard the provincial border round the clock and licensed weapons would be provided to the people in the area.
Meanwhile, PPP legislator Makhdoom Syed Usman Malehmood submitted a calling-attention notice in Punjab Assembly over the incident. He stated that the dacoits continued firing for half an hour in the Chowk Mahi area, while the officials of the local police station failed to respond in time. The member of the provincial assembly asked whether the first information reported (FIR) of the incident had been registered and how many robbers involved in the firing had been arrested.
He said the house should be informed about the progress made in the investigation so far.
While social media users lamented an increase in incidents of kidnapping for ransom and robbery in the area, several local groups of traders and religious and political parties announced a strike and protest rallies against the attack.
Sources said that Jan Mohammad alias Janu Undhar, the ringleader of the gang, had accepted responsibility for the attack through the social media and threatened to treat in a similar manner anyone who helped the police.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 12th, 2021.
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